A liberal statesman at the threshold of liberation and civil war
At Caserta, he agreed that military command after liberation would pass to the British commander, General Scobie.
A Greek liberal politician, Papandreou opposed the monarchy while also confronting the communist movement, combining social reform with firm anti-communism. During the Second World War he led the government-in-exile and, through the Lebanon Conference and the Caserta Agreement, helped establish a framework for resistance participation in government and the integration of armed forces. Returning in 1944 as prime minister of the Government of National Unity, he sought to restore state authority amid British intervention and conflict between EAM and non-EAM forces, a project that gave way to the Dekemvriana and civil war. He later founded the Centre Union and defended parliamentary democracy until his death under house arrest after the 1967 military coup.
Also known as: George Papandreou
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1916Joined Venizelos's insurgent government and organised anti-monarchist support.
- 1923Minister of the Interior
- 1930–1932Minister of Education, expanding schools for refugee children.
- 1935Founded the Democratic Socialist Party of Greece
- 1944–1945Prime minister of the government-in-exile and Government of National Unity; represented Greece at Lebanon and Caserta.
- 1950–1952Deputy prime minister
- 1961–1965Leader of the Centre Union, winning the 1963 and 1964 elections.
- 1967–1968Held under house arrest by the military regime
Related historical events
Founding the Centre Union and the 1961-1965 confrontation
On 19 September 1961, with a general election approaching, Venizelist liberals, social democrats and conservatives dissatisfied with the right gathered under Papandreou to found the Centre Union, aimed at offering a credible alternative to Konstantinos Karamanlis's National Radical Union. The October election returned the ERE, but it was accompanied by fraud and by wide-scale repression of left-wing and centrist sympathizers by the police and military; Papandreou refused to accept the result and declared a "Relentless Struggle" to force the "illegal government" of Karamanlis from power.
The 1963 election made the Centre Union the largest party without an absolute majority. Appointed prime minister and confirmed by a confidence vote, Papandreou resigned rather than govern with communist backing, since the left-wing EDA had voted for him. King Paul dissolved parliament and called fresh elections, in which the Centre Union won 53 per cent of the vote and an absolute majority in 1964. Back in office, Papandreou introduced economic liberalization and income redistribution and advanced social reform: longer compulsory schooling, free education at every level and expanded schools and welfare. Abroad he took a pro-Enosis stance on Cyprus and sent a Greek army division to the island amid intercommunal clashes. In this period his son Andreas Papandreou emerged as a leader of the party's left, and controversy grew around the networks he built.
The clash with the monarchy came to a head in 1965 over ASPIDA, a secret organization within the army. When Defence Minister Petros Garoufalias resigned, Papandreou, urged on by his son, moved to take the defence portfolio and with it control of the army; King Constantine II refused, citing the conflict of interest in a father investigating a case implicating his son. Papandreou resigned, and the King at once appointed Georgios Athanasiadis-Novas in his place. Papandreou appealed to public opinion with the slogan that the king reigns but the people rule, while the King's successive coalition governments, built from Centre Union defectors, failed to win a vote of confidence and fell one after another. Papandreou branded them "apostates" and declared a second "struggle". The events of July 1965 led to two years of political instability, and amid the sense that the Centre Union would be forced into alliance with the socialist EDA before the scheduled 1967 elections, a military coup followed in April 1967.